From Jan De Bont, the director of Speed,
comes yet another hyper-kinetic ride into the heart of chaos... Twister.
The film stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as Jo and Bill Harding, a
pair of formerly-married storm chasers - meteorologists who follow
thunderstorms around the Midwest in the hopes of studying tornados
to better understand and predict them. But their marriage has gone
south, and Bill's moved on, leaving the thrill of the chase behind
to settle down. That means a job as a TV weatherman and a new
therapist fiancée (Melissa, played by Jami Gertz). But Bill
needs Jo to sign their divorce papers before he and Melissa can
start a new life, so he drags Melissa out into the Oklahoma
countryside to get Jo to sign on the dotted line.

There Bill is reunited with all his old storm-chasing buddies, and
he gets a surprise from Jo - a special project he conceived has come
to fruition. Nicknamed "Dorothy", it's an instrument
package designed to study the inside of a twister by sending up
little sensors into the funnel. There's just one problem - you need
to place the device in the path of a twister, and that means getting
dangerously close. Before Bill can get Jo's signature, the team gets
a lead on a storm brewing nearby and they're off in a motley caravan
of vehicles in pursuit. Although he'd never admit it, Bill is
thrilled at the opportunity to go on one last chase and see his idea
realized. But another team of storm chasers is also in the hunt. Led
by a former colleague (played by Cary Elwes) and with corporate
funding, they're also trying to prove the Dorothy concept, using
Bill's stolen idea. Complicating things further, this is no ordinary
day of thunderstorms. Brewing over the heartland of America is a
super storm of greater destructive power than anyone's seen in
years.

I should probably confess right up front that I like Twister.
For me, it's one of those guilty pleasure flicks... except that I
don't feel any guilt about enjoying it. I mean, sure... it's got
implausibility in spades and plot holes you could sail an aircraft
carrier through. There are a plethora of continuity errors in its
113 minutes (like constantly changing sky conditions from shot to
shot). And some (oh, hell... most) of this dialogue is just lame.
Sometimes these lines are so bad that it makes the performances seem
painfully awkward. The whole relationship between Bill and his new
love falls horribly flat. And the subplot involving the rivalry
between the two teams is equally bad ("They're just a bunch of
corporate kiss-butts, man!"). It should be noted that the vast
majority of this film's problems could have been fixed by a script
polish. But whatever. Twister
is still fun enough that if you can slap on the blinders, it's a
good ride. De Bont keeps the action moving and the effects are
mostly great. Having grown up in North Dakota, I've seen real
twisters (and the damage they can cause) firsthand. Let me tell
ya... what you see in this flick is pretty convincing.

But enough about the film. Let's talk DVD. When Twister
first appeared on DVD, it was literally one of the very first titles
available on the format. Thank God Warner decided to revisit it.
This new DVD special edition is pretty great.

One of the biggest problems with the initial release, was very
mediocre video quality. The initial DVD was in anamorphic widescreen
(and featured full frame on the flip side of the disc), but it was
so bad looking that, despite the THX seal of approval, the disc is
widely regarded as a disaster. In fact, this first disc is what
caused many people to lose faith in THX when it came to DVD quality.
The original widescreen video is plagued by MPEG-2 compression
artifacting. It's also got some unneeded edge-enhancement, resulting
in a too-crisp, edgy looking image. Unfortunately, when combined
with the artifacting, the result was often muddy looking video,
especially during any scenes of chaotic motion. In other words,
whenever the twisters were on screen, the video looked like crap.
There are also contrast problems with the original release - the
blacks are a bit too deep and lack detail, and the brights are often
too bright. Finally, there are serious color-timing problems, which
mean that colors are often over-saturated and slightly unnatural
looking. The new DVD version lacks the THX seal, but you'll be glad
of that. This is a brand new transfer, and it's much more appealing.
The artifacting is largely gone and less edge-enhancement has been
used. The result is a slightly softer but smoother and more pleasing
image. The colors are better timed, meaning that they're more muted
looking, but also more natural and accurate. There's also a lot more
detail in the darkest picture areas, and the bright spots aren't
overblown. This isn't reference quality... but I don't know if you
could ever make this film look reference quality. What it is is
darned good, and much improved over the original.

On the audio aide, the original DVD did feature very good Dolby
Digital 5.1 surround sound. This new disc seems to have the very
same English and French 5.1 tracks, which is fine. The Dolby 5.1
track is very active and aggressive, with deep bass and plenty of
surround channel effects, panning and adequately clear dialogue
(this is, after all, a twister film - it's hard to shout above that
roar). The DTS 5.1 track improves the sound experience in small, but
noticeable, ways. The stage here is broader and deeper, with more
seamless panning and a generally more unified soundfield. It's also
got a bit of a more airy sound quality, which I'm not sure isn't
appropriate (again, this is a twister film). My personal preference
is for the DTS track, but you can't go wrong with either. And I'm
just very glad to see Warner jumping behind DTS as an alternate
option for DVD soundtracks.

Bonus material is where Warner's new special edition of this film
really trounces the earlier version. The original DVD, being one of
the first releases on the format, had really lame-duck, primitive
looking static menu screens. And by way of extras, you got a teaser
trailer and some cast bios - that's it. Even the "Jump to a
Scene" section bites - the original disc has 32 chapters, but
you can only select from 9 in the menu. On the other hand, this new
disc boasts some cool animated menus screens, which are made to look
as if everything you're seeing was captured by one of the storm
chasers' camcorders (thankfully, they're not too digitally
compressed-looking either, as are many of Warner's other DVD menus).

And you get some nice features on the new special edition. There's
an audio commentary track with De Bont and visual effects supervisor
Stefen Fangmeier. It's not too bad, but deals mostly with
scene-specific production anecdotes. You know what I mean - "Ah..
here we have..." and "Oh... this is where..." It
works for what it is, but don't expect a lot of plot or character
insights. You've got a 14-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, The
Making of Twister (which is pretty good), and a shorter,
8-minute featurette, Anatomy of the
Twister (which is more cheezy). There's also some cast &
crew bios and the film's teaser and theatrical trailers. Rounding
things out is a good music video for Van Halen's Humans
Being from the film's soundtrack - the last great song
the band managed to record before guitarist (and band leader) Eddie
Van Halen's ego exploded the group from the inside out. Come on -
the band loses three lead singers and we're supposed to believe it's
the singers' fault?! Give it up, Ed.

Anyway you look at it, Warner's new Twister:
Special Edition is by far the better of the two DVD
versions. It's definitely a welcome addition to my collection and is
LONG overdue. The only reason to own the first disc is if you really
absolutely have to have the full frame version... and I just don't
know what to make of that. The new disc gives you great Dolby
Digital AND DTS surround sound, much-improved anamorphic widescreen,
and some nice extras to boot. Plus, you get a great flick to kill a
lazy afternoon with. If you don't have the film on DVD yet, this new
disc is worth buying. And if you do have the original... replace it
fast and be glad you did.